>> what does truman ] say? >> the buck stops here. >> what does john f. kennedy say? >> ask not what you can doy? for your country. but what your country can do for you. >> what's bill clinton say? >> i did not have sex with that woman. >> what does george w. s bush s? >> you seen me once and you're not going to see again. >> very cute. that last one -- >> greg, you're up? >> real quick, "red eye"w "tomorrow, is is p.me, new time, new show. give it up. i hate that. just say clap. >> is that what it means? >> no more of that. >> eric, you're up. >> very quickly, saturday,>> 11:30 a.m., "cashin' in." we're throwing a third birthday

party bash for obamacare.as do we have anything over that? there's a little of that. a little of that. >> how did it taste? >> i'll be sure to be there for that. >> 11:30 a.m. >> let me repeat again, our fox poll is going -- i got to get out of here right now. o sorry. i'm not used to doing this, as you know. if there was any audience left since i started the show. the poll is at facebook.comoo thefive fnc. please vote because we're obviously quite serious about this and so are a lot of other people. for all ofbo the vietnam veteras watching this, you deserve a lot more credit than you ever got and you certainly deserve to bet treated much better than cbs decided to treat you. i can't understand why, i will never be able to understand why, but i'll say it again, you've dug yourselves in a hole. give me the shovel.

get out. apologize. apologize sunday night during your next episode of the race, whatever that ridiculous thing is called. >> amazing race. >> and everybody have a good weekend. we'll see you very soon and that willek be monday. hello, welcome to a brand-new hour inside america's news headquarters. i'm rick folbaum. >> i'm heather childers in for arthel neville. topping the news this hour. >> i recognize that there are senators that are frustrated that want an opportunity to speak out. i know that there are a number of senators who are very tired. everybody's patience is wearing thin. >> nerves fraying as the senate acts in its own theater of the absurd by holding a series much votes into the early morning

hours in order to pass a budget. say hello to voter ama. the latest in congress dysfunction. >> we are officially done with winter. but winter is sticking around. a powerful storm slamming the midwest. we'll show where you that storm is headed. also, the call of the wild. >> you definitely want to see this. looking at wolves in a different light. a new book is doing away with myths, showing these misunderstood animals in a whole new way. we will talk with two authors who actually lived among the pack. >> first, possible break in the murder investigation of colorado's prison chief. investigatessors now saying that

this man killed in a bloody gun fight with texas authorities thursday is a suspect in the murder of 58-year-old tom clements at his colorado home tuesday night. dom nick joins us live from los angeles with the very latest details. dominic. >> hey there. that man in the mug shot was evan ebel, 28-year-old parolee. today he was named fort very first time as the suspect in the assassination of tom clements who was the prison system chief. officials are saying evidence gathered from the shootout scene provides a strong lead in the killing. shell casings match the same make and caliber of those found at the home of clements, adding to the other evidence that ebel's carried matched the description of the one spotted outside clements' house the night he died. ebel had a long criminal member, and a member of the white

supremacist prison gang, considered one of the vicious groups operating. one of the attorney who defended the members said that only one method can exist for investigators to use if they want to find out if ebel was instructed to carry out the assassination. >> rounding up every single member that they know of of 211 within the entire colorado department of corrections, sweating them extensively, looking for anyone willing to snitch that this was not some 211 guy acting alone. >> the member of a gang doesn't have the authority to kill somebody. he has to be called bay shot caller. if that caller is uncovered, he could face a murder charge. >> dominic, thank you. >> switching gears a milestone for the health care overhaul.

president obama signed into law three years ago today. controversy over the giant piece of legislation has just not gone away. americans are still trying to figure out all the fine print and what it will cost them. on top of this, there are new signs the political fight over it could be heating up again. molly henneberg is live in washington with more. hi, molly. >> hi. just this week, republicans and democrats on capitol hill voted to repeal an unpopular obamacare tax, the medical device tax on everything from latex gloves to wheelchairs to dentsal instruments. but health insurance industry advocates warn more taxes from this law are coming down the pike. >> the reform law includes a new $100 billion tax in health insurance that starts next year. 2014 will be $8 billion. that's going to mean an average will pay $100 more on a premium as a result of this tax alone. small businesses will pay over $350 for each family they provide coverage for.

>> president obama said in a statement today that obamacare is already saving seniors money on prescription drugs. and it's slowing the growth of health care costs. the president also said in a statement today that, quote, beginning in october, you'll be able to sign up for new private health care plans through a new health insurance marketplace where private plans will compete to save middle class families money. but because many states say these marketplaces, these exchanges are too unwieldy and expensive for them to set up on a local level, it false on the federal government to set them up. >> no money was budgeted for the federal government to do that. congress seems unwilling to give the administration money to do that. we're looking at a very messy situation. >> house republican speaker john boehner said in a statement today that three years into obamacare, health insurance premiums have, quote, spiked, and the price tag for the overall law has, quote, nearly doubled: rick?

>> molly henneberg, thank you very much. >> the u.s. senate passing its first budget proposal in more than four years, voting in a marathon session ending just before dawn this morning. >> the ayes are 50. the nays are 49. >> the senate has passed a budget. >> the nonbinding proposal, along with a measure passed in the house is expected to serve as the basis for future negotiations with the white house. elizabeth prann has more from our dc news room. >> it may have taken all night, but the senate narrowly approvessed the budget for the first time in four years, passing 50-49. it's a $3.7 trillion blue print plan raising a trillion dollars in new taxes and the government would still be in a definite sit after ten years. senator patty murray argues it creates jobs and economic growth. for the democrats, the vote is a

big accomplishment. >> first of all, over the last two decades, an average budget resolution considered 78 amendments. we've done 101. average voterama, 101. we've done twice as many. doing this has been a huge feat. >> hundred dollars of amendments were filed. mostly symbolic to show where senators stand on issues. when you take 13-hour, six-minute vote, there has to be humor. >> at this time, 5:00 a.m, there has not been a day without a budget being passed in the united states senate the. >> all democrats voted yay, with the exception of four up for reelection in 2014 and from states which can be unfriendly to democrats. jay carney responding to today's news. he says the president's plan will also cut, quote, wasteful spending, while eliminating

special tax breaks and loopholes for the wealthiest americans. in washington, elizabeth prann, fox news. >> so perhaps the question you're asking yourself, why in the world did it take more than 13 hours to pass the first budget in four years? well, that all goes back to an old senate practice that usually involves lawmakers voting on dozens of amendments. well, some argue that is a really bad way to make policy. >> some of these amendments are incredibly fundamental, important foreign policy issues that you do not do at 3:00 o'clock in the morning and change the dynamics of the middle east, change the dynamics of our national security and interest. >> but is this business as usual from now on in washington? coming up, we will dissect what some are calling a, quote, carnival stage of the u.s.

government. rick? >> all right. from the carnival to the weather. spring is here officially. but for millions of americans, it feels more like winter is not going away. the snow continues to fall in parts of colorado. it's part of the storm in the midwest. it could drop a foot of snow in some areas. and this storm system is on the move. it could create some serious travel problems all the way to those of us here in the northeast. meteorologist janis dean live with more. >> it's nice to see you. i'm sorry i'm delivering the bad news. >> that's okay. >> for a lot of folks, unfortunately. millions of people could be seeing another winter storm. let's take a look at it. there is our satellite imagery. heavy snow into kansas city. a warm side of the storm across the south, they're feeling spring-like, and summer-like temperatures. severe thunderstorm watch for parts of mississippi, alabama, the florida panhandle, up towards georgia. we could see the potential for tornadoes. an eye

on that for you. that watch is good until 9:00 p.m. local time. you can see a widespread area of large hail, heavy downpours and isolated tornadoes. let's look at that cold side of the storm and track it for you as we head into saturday night, into sunday. kansas city, you see the darker shades of blue here. that's heavy snow we're expecting. so kansas city through st. louis, from six to 12 inches. some isolated areas could get higher amounts. taking a look at this torrent that moves eastward up toward the mid atlantic and northeast. how much snow could we get? we could get significant amounts. let's take a look at it. again, as we head through the next 72 hours. kansas city through st. louis, 6 to 12 easily. toward cincinnati, we could see higher totals across portions of central indiana. take a look at this forecast map. into dc, six to 12, perhaps higher amounts across the delmarva, toward philadelphia and new york, you need to be watching this as well because all of this is going to happen

monday morning into monday afternoon for this big corridor where millions of people live. so rick and heather, we're going to keep a close eye on this and we'll have a better idea of the forecast as we head into tomorrow. but people really need to be paying close attention to their local forecast, especially in the next 12 to 24 hours t. could make a big problem for us across the northwest. >> i put my shovel away and not taking it back out. >> you jinxed us! it's all because of you! >> i don't care what happens on monday. [ laughter ] >> all you're fault! >> at least the bad news is coming from janis. we are waiting word on a possible bailout deal in cyprus. the country is facing a monday deadline to avoid financial collapse that threatens to throw another monkey wrench into the world economic recovery. now officials there reportedly agreeing on the elements of a possible deal. greg palkot is live for us from cyprus with the latest on this

possible deal. greg? >> yeah, heather. it seems like we could be closer to a deal here in cyprus to avoid this country from going under. of course, it will be good news for cyprus, as well as europe and the united states. angry protesters kept up their vigil outside of government offices today. inside, reports are that officials agreed with others to tap into the accounts of big depositors of the biggest -- by as much as 20%. small depositors would be spared. so reportedly would be pension funds. the hitch is, a broader plan to seize assets was nixed here earlier this weeks. we're waiting to see if this will require some more attention. the plan now, though, is for the whole package to be reviewed sunday by top officials of the european union and elsewhere. and then a decision will be mailed whether to pony up. approval would be a very good thing for folks here. we've been talking to them for

the past few days. they are desperate. banks have been closed for an entire week. atm's are running dry. cash is short. banks are set to reopen on tuesday. again, keeping cyprus out of bankruptcy would be a very good thing for europe. it is worried about contagion, spreading to other countries in europe and with europe being the number one trading partner of the united states, keeping europe healthy and trading with the united states would be very important. back to you. >> it all interconnects. greg palkot, thank you. >> quick break. when we come back, china raised a new question in washington. on one hand, the chinese are getting tough with north korea. on the other hand, they're entering into a secret nuclear deal with pakistan. we'll discuss the mixed signals coming out of beijing. plus -- >> pandemonium, which defined as a palace of satan and milton's paradise law. that term fails to describe the

enormity of the senate when it becomes engulfed in these budget vote carnivals. so we're doing fine. >> senate to majority leader harry reid at the end of his rope as the senate pulled an all nighter to pass a budget. we will discuss the latest political circus in washington, up next hey. they're coming. yeah. british. later. sorry. ok...four words... scarecrow in the wind... a baboon... monkey? hot stew saturday!? ronny: hey jimmy, how happy are folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico? jimmy: happier than paul revere with a cell phone. ronny: why not? anncr: get happy. get geico.

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>> rick: thanks for spending part of your saturday with us. two teenage boys are under arrest in georgia charged with first degree murder in the shooting death of a 13 month old baby. he was in a stroller when he was shot in the head during a robbery. authorities in colorado, in other news, are considering the possibility that a missing teen-ager is the victim of sex trafficking. they say the 17-year-old aspiring model may have been abducted by an on-line predator. in new york city, a man has a massive heart attack two days after he is exonerated for murder. this man spent 23 years in prison before leaving thursday as a free and innocent man. now he's had a heart attack.

>> heather: in the hospital recovering. that's good. mixed signals coming out of china. beijing reportedly stepping up its sanctions against north korea while at the same time, striking a secret nuclear pact with nearby pakistan. prompting some to question what exactly is china up to? jim walsh is an international security expert at m.i.t. security studies program. he joins us now. thank you so much for joining us. >> good to be with you again. >> heather: so it does seem that there is some mixed signals coming out of china right now. let's start with the pressure that they're putting on north korea. do you think that will make any difference? >> well, it could. if you look at what north korea has done over the past month, they've shown up china on several different occasions. chive in a said no missile test. north korea had one. china said no nuclear test. north korea had a nuclear test. so i think this caused con sternation in beijing and i see

talk in south korea about possible acquisition of nuclear weapons. i don't think that's going to go anywhere, but the chinese don't want north korea -- i mean south korea, japan freaking out over the provocations. so i think they had to do something. it's not the most severe thing they've ever done. if it's only this, it's probably not going to matter very much. but it may be a shot across the ballast, maybe enough is enough. >> heather: they share a border, 880 miles long. there are reasons for both sides to kind of work this balancing act. you mentioned china has done more to put additional pressure on north korea in the past. what else have they done? >> well, there is some controversy over this. but fuel supplies, oil supplies to north korea were suspended at a certain point. china blamed that on a faulty pipeline. it remains unclear whether that was on purpose or because there was some fault with the pipeline

i don't think china is above putting a little pressure, putting north korea in a hot spot under very severe circumstances. china is not inclined to do this. it's not their style. they don't take a public leadership role on this or practically any other issue in politics. what they'll do is be quiet and behind the scenes and we'll have to see if this is a first step or simply symbolic. >> heather: all right. so you mentioned quiet and behind the scenes. let's move now to the deal that they made with pakistan agreeing to actually build a nuclear reactor. the obama administration saying that it violates beijing's promises under an international antinuclear weapons accord. so what are they up to there? >> yeah. i think these are two wholey separate subjects, the north korea stuff and the pakistan stuff. china had already sold much to our dislike, and my dislike

included, two nuclear power reactors to pakistan. why people aren't comfortable is pakistan has nuclear weapons. it's not in the nuclear nonproliferation treaty and there is understood rules or practices that you don't sell nuclear stuff to countries that are outside of the treaty, except that the u.s. is in a tough bind here because it did exactly that. it sold nuclear -- signed an agreement for nuclear agreement with india, which is one of these three nuclear weapons states outside of the treaty. it will be tough for the u.s. to criticize china when the u.s. did the same thing with india, which is pakistan's chief rival. >> heather: this nuclear supplier group, the nsg, is anything within that actually enforceable, though? >> no, no. this is a voluntary set of arrange ams. countries joined this voluntary. they say they'll enforce things.

that's allovery. i'm -- voluntary. no, there is nothing that can force china to stop this and frankly, the u.s. isn't gog cause china a tremendous amount of grief over this if at the same time, it's trying to get china to cooperate on pakistan. so i don't think the nsg or these other voices are going to be a problem. i expect this deal with pakistan to go through. i'm against it. but i expect it to go through. >> heather: when china was allowed to become a part of this group, there were elements that were grandfathered in, is that a possibility here? >> exactly. you've got it exactly right. so just before -- china was a late joiner to the club and we want them to be part of the club. we want them to agree on restrictions. but they said, by the way, we have business with pakistan we still want to do. we're joining on the basis of us

finishing that. then there is a dispute whether this new stuff falls under this grandfathering clause or not. again, as a political matter, you know, i think they'll do it and i don't think anyone will stop it. >> heather: you think they're two totally separate issues. >> i do. >> heather: thank you for spending part of your saturday with us and helping us understand it a little bit more. >> my pleasure. >> rick: coming up, the president wrapping up his four-day visit to the middle east today. we'll look back at some of his key goals for the mission in that part of the world and if he made any progress towards accomplishing those goals. >> heather: and this story, can't wait for this. one couple living among the pack -- a pack of wolves for years, revealing the truth about the lives of wolves, why they say these animals are not as vicious as you may think we're here! we're going to the park! [ gina ] oh hey, dan!

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welcome back. coming up on the bottom of the hour. here are your top headlines. investigators finding a suspect in the murder of a prison chief. ebel was killed in a shootout. but the casings found matched those found at the murder scene of tom clements. >> heather: just announcing an agreement with the afghan government to hand over control of a key prison. u.s. initially blocked the transfer over fears the afghan may release potentially dangerous detainees. >> rick: we're getting word that one of the richest businessman in russia also an outspoken critic of putin has died in london. suspicions he committed suicide. right now investigators say his death is unexplained.

>> heather: president obama this hour is on his way back to washington after his trip to the middle east. for the president, the four-day visit was an opportunity to reassure the region's political leaders and people particularly israel, that he is committed to their security. leeland vittert is live with more. >> late night saturday night, the president left here a little more than 24 hours ago. so aall accounts, the charm offensive worked. he walked into israel with a 10% likeability rating, too early for new polls. but at least this 24 hour analysis says the numbers are sure to go up. it's more complicated in jordan where he had a tougher mission. he landed in jordan with two missions. one is to show solidarity with king abdullah. also had to go to talk about the syrian civil war, the refugee crisis, and president obama got quite pointed when he talked

about the risk inside syria of muslims extremists taking over and possibly getting their hands on the syrian army's vast arsenal of weapons. >> i am very concerned about syria becoming an enclave for extremists because extremists thrive in chaos. they thrive in failed states. they thrive in power vacuums. >> it's going to take longer to figure out what happened in the fallout of his visit to israel. one very positive thing that the israelis are thanking the president for is helping renew the friendship with turkey, which had been on ice for a couple of years. evidently president obama in the last minutes of his visit was able to organize a call to the israeli prime minister and the leader of turkey in which the israelis apologized for the deaths of turkish in the flotilla incident. on the ground right now, secretary of state john kerry has stayed behind to see if he

can turn good words into good deeds between the israelis and palestinians. he's here trying to get the israelis and palestinians to agree on terms to negotiate about how they're going to negotiate, but even still people here aren't very optimistic that the secretary of state is going to have any success, at least in the short-term, at getting everybody back to the bargaining table. back to you. >> heather: leeland vittert, thank you. >> rick: for a lot of people, thoughts of wolves might conjure images of fairy tale villains. for others they trigger a real sense of fear. >> heather: so how did they get this big bad reputation and more importantly, do they deserve it? a pair of researchers actually lived alongside a wolf pack and they were the subject of a recent documentary. >> the pack they studied proved far different from the demons of ancient myths. rather, they were animals devoted to one another, capable of affection and bonds

resembling those of human families. >> heather: you can find out more about exactly what they learned in this new book called "the hidden life of wolves." jim and jamie dutcher are the co-authors and they join us now with more. thank you so much for joining us and sharing your book with us. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. we're thrilled to be here. >> heather: the pictures are, as rick was saying, absolutely amazing. how were you able to get some of these pictures? look at this, get so close up with these wolves? >> wolves are very afraid of people, so we started with puppies and bottle fed them and gained a trust allowing us to get into a wolf pack. we were studying their social behavior. this was the only way you can really do it. in the wild, there is just much too afraid. >> rick: you really waging a pr campaign, aren't you, on behalf of wolves because of all of the nursery rhymes and storyies

where wolves are portrayed as a scary creatures, you have a much different experience with them. share that with us. you say they're actually very compassionate animals. >> they are. they're very compassionate, caring animals. what people need to understand is that they understand wolves are in a pack, but a pack is a family. it's aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, siblings. they care for each other. they nurture each other. they mourn their dead. they live very emotional lives. and unfortunately with the fairy tales and myths, they've gotten this bad rap that is hard to shake. >> heather: how long exactly did you live among the pack and was there ever a moment that you were in fear of your own life and was there ever a moment where you actually wanted to get involved in the pack and help them out? >> no. we never feared these wolves. in fact, in the wild, wolves

have only attacked people maybe twice in 100 years. there is an awful lot of bad information about wolves that they kill all the wildlife and the cattle. a lot of this is exaggerated. we work with ranchers and try to come to solutions. wolves are very compassionate animals. they're important to eco systems. this is what we do. there is a exhibit at the museum here in chicago that we put up of all our photography trying to get the word out. >> rick: jamie, talk to us about the wolf population in this country. i was read not guilty your book that they have sort of recently been reintroduced into some of our natural parks. how are they doing and how is our government doing in terms of helping to sort of keep them alive and well? >> well, actually the wolf redirection program was one of the most successful reintroductions in the history

of the endangered species act. wolves were taken off the endangered species list in 2011 and in just the last 18 months, management went from federal government to state government. in the last 18 months since hunting season has been opened up, we went from 1100 wolves -- excuse me, 1700 wolves to over 1100 being killed. so it's taken quite a toll on the animals and when you consider the amount of wolves we have in the west compared to bears and cougars, coyotes and even 103,000 elk, the numbers are quite small and unfortunately, the states really are not managing these wolves in a way to sustain their numbers at all. >> heather: i'll just follow up. so do you think they should be

placed back on the endangered species list in order to protect them, or is getting the word out by what you're trying to do, is that enough? >> well, i think people should realize that wolves belong to all of americans. they were brought back with federal money and then they lived mostly on federal land. it's really a vocal minority of people that just want to kill all these wolf. there are proposals to use silencers on the rifles so that they can kill more wolves. individual in idaho can kill up to 16 wolves by trapping and hunting. now we can use the carcasses of dead puppies and dead wolves to lure the rest of the family back to the traps. this is using -- what's really special about this animal to kill them, wipe them out. >> rick: that is the down side of this story. but there are so many wonderful stories included in your book.

again, it's called "the hidden lives of wolves." the pictures are stunning. what an amazing experience that you were able to share and with these beautiful creatures. thanks for coming on and talking to us today. >> thanks very much for having us. >> thank you. >> heather: really beautiful story. senators, meantime, not so beautiful. burning the midnight oil. >> rick: speaking of wolves. >> heather: passing the first federal spending plan if four years. next, an insider's take on budget making washington style and why some of our biggest decisions are made at 4:00 o'clock in the morning, when it's hard to keep anything straight. >> ayes appear to have it. >> no. >> the ayes have it. thank you, mr. president. >> mr. president. >> the yeas and nays when did you know that grandma was the one? when her sister dumped me.

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>> rick: okay. so it's called voterama, an old senate trick apparently and it's exactly how the senate passed its first budget in four years, just before dawn this morning. at at last night's marathon negotiations would suggest, it can often be a frantic situation. >> we are not at carnival stage yet. let's proceed and try to use dignity. >> i know there is a lot of march madness going on. we would like to keep it calm on the floor so we can get through amendments. if everybody could please take their conversations to the cloak room. >> i know everyone is exhausted. and you may not feel it at the moment, but this is one of the senate's finest days in recent years. >> rick: susan estridge is a professor of law and political science at the university of southern california. i hate to laugh at the minority leader's comments, but one of the finest days for the senate in recent -- for those of us who don't speak washingtonian what,

is voterama? what is that? >> you know, it's a washington phrase for how you take votes without running into a filibuster possibility. so everybody can vote, but the republicans in this case don't have to decide when we fill buster and when we don't. so you play this game. it's a nonbinding resolution, as you know. so it's not even like this is the real budget. this is the senate's toss over the wall. you know, i can only say, if student government at usc worked like this, we would all be up in arms and say, can't these kids figure out how to make a decision? i think that both sides of the aisle just look a little bit silly. >> rick: i think you're absolutely right. in the end, the thing gets passed, but at the same time, nobody thinks for a minute that it's going to become law. the whole thing is a charade. >> right. so they all get to say i went on record, i passed my amendment.

i used to run party platforms on the democratic side back in the '80s and '90s and people used to joke that the party platform wasn't worth the paper it was written on. now you got the senators doing it. all this is is a party platform passed 50-49 with four democrats who have tough races. they didn't even want to sign on to it. as you say, it's a document. the house will come up with their document. and the really frustrating part is the ultimate decisions will get made got knows at what time and by whom because we won't be watching. >> rick: i think this is where the term washington's broken comes from. i mean, you could look it up in the dictionary. they should have a picture of what happened in the u.s. senate in the overnight hours last night. this is nuts. i don't understand exactly how americans are supposed to have any kind of confidence in their elected officials in washington. >> well, that's the problem. they don't. and when you see the minority

leader -- again, i'm not picking on one side. harry reid was talking to. when you see the minority leader saying, to do foreign policy at 3:00 o'clock in the morning with a bunch of guys talking about march madness, and to call this our finest hour? it's that old joke, your second finest hour if this is the finest hour. and i really do think, you know -- when i grew up, we usedf these men and occasional women of real standing and stature. i remember going to work there as a young assistant and thinking, my god, look at me from lynn, mass, i'm at the u.s. senate. now i think it looks more like a carnival and that's the democracy. >> rick: we've got the far left in you're party, susan, who refuse to talk about any sort of substantial cuts to entitlement. they really just want to continue to raise taxes on the wealthiest in this country. then you got the far right on the other side who want to cut

everything except for defense spending. then you got i think the bulk of the country which falls somewhere in the middle. i'm just wondering if the extremes on both sides should be able to hold the rest of the country hostage the way that they seem to be doing. >> well, you've answered the question. of course, they shouldn't. buff the problem obviously is that the extremes tend to be organized, motivated and both sides, in both parties, and that there is a whole glob of americans in the middle, certainly the majority, who think that there should be some kind of compromise here with some cuts, some revenue, figure out how to do it. and yet, frankly we don't stay up 'til 4:00 o'clock in the morning keep track of how these yoyo heads voted because we're sitting this trying to live our lives. i think that's the disconnect right now between interest group politics in washington dominated

by ideologues and the rest of the country trying to make a living and looking at these guys and girls and saying, what are you people doing? >> rick: i had some hopes a while back for a grand bargain, the optimist in me was saying something was going to happen. i'm not sure that's even a possibility. we'll have to wait and see. always good to talk to you. thanks so much for joining us. don't forget you can read susan's syndicated column in newspapers all across the country every wednesday and friday. heather? >> heather: all right. so good blender is a key tool for healthy eating. there are a whole lot of models on the market. so how do you know that you're getting the most blender for your buck? "consumer reports" is here with a look at some of the best models on the market. let's see which one. he'll get it to work [ male announcer ] research suggests cell health

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>> heather: i do not have a blender at home of the clearly i couldn't get this one to work. >> rick: this is your lucky day because no kitchen is complete without a good blender.

>> heather: whether you are making healthy smoothies or hosting a margarita night, you want to make sure the blender is up to the job and "consumer make sure smart" magazine. daniel is here with a look at some of the best. >> rick: thanks for coming in. >> great to be here. >> rick: so we have three blenders. these are all rated very highly by "consumer reports." >> top performers. we tested more than 60. there were quite a few lemons. these three rose to the top. top performers across a variety of tests. >> heather: you don't mean lemons in the blender? >> no. >> rick: you could put lemons in this. right now we have soup in this. tell bus this. >> this is the vitamix. the original ube blender. costs $450, you can pay ago premium. but the performance is practically perfect. smoothies, frozen drinks, and soup. that's what's unique about this. the friction of its blades is enough to actually heat the soup

or coffee, a variety of other hot recipes. >> rick: it's so expensive. >> $450 is expensive. >> rick: is it worth the money? >> it is. the durability. that's one thing, this will last and last. again, we didn't see that with every machine we tested. then just the uniformity. being able to do all these different tasks. >> heather: anything that you would possibly want to do, you can do in this blender? >> yes. it's not going to let you down. you'll need to take the top off. nope. >> heather: we both do really good in the kitchen. you can tell. >> heather: that's interesting. it doesn't have the little -- i'm surprised it doesn't have an opening here. >> rick: how does it heat up? >> it's spinning so fast, that the friction alone is enough to heat soup. it takes a few minutes. >> rick: talk about the other

one. >> heather: this next one? >> australian manufacturer, really big name in small appliances. all of their stuff does well including this $200 blender. nice design, glass jar. stainless steel housing. a blender will sit out on the counter. >> heather: this is how you turn this op. this is ice. what do we want to do? >> go to 5. >> heather: okay. and stop. >> yeah. strawberry, half and half. we had a little melting here. >> rick: my kids like to make smoothies. >> this is looking more like a smoothie. but you can put this in the freezer and it will set nicely for you. >> heather: it costs a little bit less? >> yeah. about half as much. but still giving you the performance. it's not going to heat soup. but it's going to do practically everything else. >> rick: this last blender, this

is an inn a price range that most people would -- most people would typically think they're going to spend when they want to get a blender. >> 60 bucks. this is the ninja, the master prep pro. actually beat out the vitamax by a few points. it's actually a better machine. >> heather: that's a no brainer. >> it's also a few things. we have it as a chopper here. noisy, but chops nuts. >> rick: it's nice you can use different size pitchers. >> yeah, in terms of versatility. this is your winner here. >> heather: i like the name. the name alone is worth 60 bucks. >> rick: thanks very much. always nice to see you. and that does it for us. thank you for joining us. >> heather: it was nice to be here. harris faulkner is up next in the fox report. >> rick: we'll see you tomorrow 4:00 o'clock eastern. bye.